Ladies power way to Ulster success

Ladies power way to Ulster success

12 December 2018

DROMARA ladies took the honours at the Ulster Cyclo-Cross Championships in Dungannon at the weekend.

Island Wheelers hosted the very best cyclo-cross riders from all over Ulster and they tested their skills at Windmill Park.

This course is well known for being a tricky one in the dry, never mind the wet, and with the deluge of rain over the week it was never going to be dry.

The early pre-entries showed that Dromara members enjoy their cyclo-cross as they had teams in all the championship disciplines. It was great to see several members make their comeback after a few weeks out as well.

The juniors raced in the morning, but supporters had to wait until the U-12 race before a bit of Dromara CC colour hit the mud. 

James Armstrong has had a fantastic season and his winning run would surely be tested on this course. James had a great start into the first corner, but was hounded all the way by Conor Murphy who kept him on his toes. With no mistakes and a strong finishing last lap, James took the win.

The next race saw the Dromara ladies tackle this treacherous course which would surely test all of their skills. 

Diane Wilson is known for her slow starts, normally due to a poor position on the grid, but once she gets a bit of clear track, the lap times tumble. 

Sticking to this , Diane started to move up the field after the first lap, showing her skills on the tricky sections as well as utilising her running background for the hilly run up. 

With the laps running out she crossed as the Ladies Masters Ulster Champion. Behind her, Martina Hawkins was having a great race and carved through the course with ease making the hilly climb look easy compared to the rest. 

Martina just ran out of laps in her bid to catch Gill Smith and had to settle with an excellent bronze medal.

The senior ladies saw Rachael Irvine dominate the race to claim the gold medal, but behind her our very own Andra Hamilton, who has been getting better every race she has entered, put in a ride of her life to hold off Ellie McCardell from Square Wheels to claim a silver medal. The Dromara ladies also claimed the team prize to cap it off.

In the men’s M40, M50 and M60 race, the pressure was on to see what they could do. 

Neil Armstrong has had a great season and he put in another stirring performance to claim 11th place with Richard Cowan taking 24th. He was followed by Paul Hamilton and Brian Kellett taking 26th and 37th respectively. 

Derek Graham took 11th in the M50 and only just miss out on a top 10 finish. Mike Barton again produced a brave performance to become the M60 Ulster champion and looks forward to the Irish National Championships in January.

This left the senior men to finish off the day and what a race to finish with. 

Our very own Barry Kellett took the hole shot to notify the rest that he was back in the groove. 

The race saw a three-way battle between Graham Boyd, David Montgomery and Thomas Creighton with the race lead changing each lap.

Behind them, Kellett was in a battle to claim a top 10 position with the other team members Graham Smyth and Darren McCann desperate to finish as high as possible, considering the team prize was up for grabs. On the final lap Graham Boyd made the decisive move and become Ulster Champion followed by David Montgomery and Thomas Creighton. Kellett took eighth place with Graham Smyth in 14th and Darren McCann 16th, meaning Dromara CC claimed the solver medal in the team event, only missing out by the slimmest of margins.

Behind the scenes the pit crews worked tirelessly, washing bikes and doing the bike handovers with panache, showing a real team performance. 

Many thanks to Philip Blair and the Belgium Project for the use of the photos. Finally, a huge thanks to all the team at Island Wheelers who put on a fantastic event. Next race will be the Irish Nationals in Cork.